Film Review: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ is All Kinds of Awesome

Submitted by PatrickMcD on May 15, 2015 - 8:03am

CHICAGO – While “Mad Max: Fury Road” isn’t quite in the same league as director George Miller’s masterpiece “The Road Warrior,” it’s learned all the right lessons from that action classic. It’s a cinematic adrenaline machine that puts the pedal to the metal and rarely lets up.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

There’s a similar post-apocalyptic setting this time around with the deserts of Namibia subbing for the Australian outback. Tom Hardy plays Max, introduced as a shaggy-haired loner eating a live lizard and living by survival instincts alone. But he’s really a supporting player in his own movie. Charlize Theron is the star of this show as a renegade one armed war general who helps a pack of women escape from an evil warlord who’s using them as his personal baby making machines.

From the opening chase where Max is literally held prisoner as a hood ornament on a souped up car driven by a crazy white skinned kid with a death wish, to the fiery finale “Mad Max: Fury Road” just keeps on moving and amazing its audience with “I can’t believe they actually did that” kinds of stunts.

“Mad Max: Fury Road” opens everywhere on May 15th, in 3D and regular screenings. See local listings for 3D theaters. Featuring Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Zoe Kravitz. Written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy and Nick Lathouris. Directed by George Miller. Rated “R”